“[T]o translate the Latin text and retain the Latin tone or notes has my sanction, though it doesn’t sound polished or well done. Both the text and notes, accent, melody, and manner of rendering ought to grow out of the true mother tongue [i.e., the native language] and its inflection, otherwise all of it becomes an imitation in the manner of the apes.”
Any guess as to who said it?
Martin Luther
You can find something close to it from Giambatttista Vico’s writings.
The Wonderful World of Google intimates that it was Martin Luther…
“In his treatise Wider die himmlischen Propheten (1525) Luther wrote:
‘I would gladly have a German mass today. I am also occupied with it. But I would very much like it to have a true German character. For to translate the Latin text and retain the Latin tone or notes has my sanction, though it does not sound polished or well done. Both the text and notes, accent, melody, and manner of rendering ought to grow out of the true mother tongue and its inflection, otherwise all of it becomes an imitation, in the manner of the apes. 5′”
The footnote cited:
5. LW 40:141. ‘‘Ich wolt heute gerne eine deutsche Messe haben, Ich gehe auch damit umbe, Aber ich wolt ja gerne, das sie eine rechte deutsche art hette, Denn das man den lateinisch text verdolmetscht und lateinisch ton odder noten behellt, las ich geschehen,
Aber es laut nicht ertig noch rechtschaffen. Es mus beide text und noten, accent, weise und geperde aus rechter mutter sprach und stimme komen, sonst ists alles ein nachomen, wie die affen thun’’; WA 18:123.
Would it be acceptable to offer an additional candidate for Quote of the Day? From http://www.chantcafe.com reporting on a Baltimore Episcopal parish going Roman Catholic with the Anglican use:
“With the magnificently corrected Roman Missal coming out this time next year (that’s a long time of nights sleepless with anticipation), the now far-apart worlds of the ordinary form and the Anglican Use will draw more closely together. We are looking more and more at the lovely ecumenism we should all favor, namely a universal sound and feel of the Roman Rite, whether the ordinary form, extraordinary form, or Anglican Use.”
That “lovely ecumenism” is especially beautiful to anticipate.
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